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Horrifying Video Shows An Indian Woman Violently Beaten With Hockey Sticks By In-Laws For Giving Birth To A Baby Girl

A woman has been filmed apparently being beaten by her in-laws for giving birth to a girl. Local reports in Katalwi, Punjab, suggest that Meena Kashyap, 35, was also attacked as part of a dowry dispute.
The disturbing clip, taken from the top of a flight of stairs, shows the woman screaming as she is lashed with hockey sticks from the front and back by two men, her brother in law and one of his friends.

The victim, identified as 35-year-old Meena Kashyap, was beaten last week after her husband's family out she had made a previous violence complaint in April, local reports say.

Her husband’s family had recently found out that she had previously made complaints about them in April saying they had treated her with violence.

Ms Kashyap is said to be in dispute over a dowry of £8,300 given to her by her in-laws but then when she gave birth to a girl her husband’s family were angered.

She has been beaten a number of times, according to the Hindustan Times.

According to reports, the victim, from Patiala, Punjab, gave birth to a girl whom her husband's family refused to accept and a number of beatings followed.

The pair were also involved in a dispute over 700,000 rupees (£8,300) that was given by the bride's parents to her new husband's family at their wedding.

The incident was brought to the public's attention when the video went viral on social media platforms across the country.

The issue of dowry, which has long been a controversial issue in rural India, has also become a hot topic since the video surfaced.

What is a Dowry?

Dowry payments are given by a bride's family to her new husband's relatives upon her marriage, and can include everything from money and valuables to home appliances and cars.

These payments used to be made in lieu of traditional inheritance for women, and were given to help her support herself in her new husband's family and to give her something to live on in the event of his death.

But the payments fast became a source of income for the husband's family, who would not only demand money at the wedding itself, but continue extorting the bride's family afterward - especially around the birth of a child.

The shame of living with an unmarried daughter, or having your daughter divorced, is used as leverage to convince a woman's family to pay up.

If a bride's family refuse to pay, or cannot afford the sum demanded, the woman is sometimes abused or even killed as a result.

This practice became so common that the practice of giving dowries was officially banned in India in 1961, but still continues today under the guise of 'gifts' given by one family to another.

Around 8,000 dowry deaths occur each year in India according to the country's national crimes statistics bureau.

The inequality built into the system is also partly behind India's high rates of infanticide and abortion of girls, leading to a gender ratio skewed toward men.

Campaigners and charity workers in the UK have been warning since at least 2014 that 'underground' dowry violence is taking place in this country and have urged police forces to begin gathering data on the issue.

A report that year by The Independent found that hundreds of women a year are being burnt, scalped, imprisoned or otherwise abused in their homes over financial disputes with their in-laws.